TIDAL LANDS : A STUDY OF SHOEE PROBLEMS 2o3 



shore by dredging sand and gravel seems little short of a scandal : 

 ignorance of the probable effects is no excuse in a nation that affects 

 to rule the waves. It is of course difficult to obtain co-operative 

 action in this country, but if the advice given by these experts were 

 followed, a more satisfactory era should dawn for the foreshore. 



This excellent and stimulating book, of which print, illustrations, 

 and index are alike good, should be in the hands of every intelligent 

 foreshore worker. 



A. J. W. 



L'Evolution des Planfes par Noel Bee>"aed, Professeur a la 

 Faculte des sciences de Poitiers. Preface de J. Costaxtin. 8vo, 

 pp. xxxii, 314 : 29 fi gg. Paris: Felix Alcan. Price 4 fr. 55 c. 



De mortuis the old adage saves us not a word in ovu* 



notice of the paper-covered volume before us. With regret we learn 

 from the preface that the author died in the first month of 1911 at 

 the early age of thirty-six ; so that this work has been given to the 

 public only after a lapse of over seven years since its completion. 



It is a concise and altogether fascinating account of vegetable 

 evolution, comprising three principal sections. The first of these, 

 " Lois generales de TEvolution," affords us a fair example of the 

 peculiar possibilities of the French language in the direction of 

 clearness, simplicity, and conciseness — the eternal legacy to French 

 prose of the author of Lettres Provinciales. For here, within the 

 compass of 160 clearly-printed pages, we find an admirable general 

 account of the vast subjects of Individual Evolution and vSexuality ; 

 the ideas of " Species," " Varieties," and other s^'stematic units ; 

 Heredity ; Hybridization ; Variation. The standpoint throughout 

 is historical, although this, we venture to suggest, seems not suffi- 

 ciently emphasized. This first part should be as invaluable to the 

 elementar}^ student> — particularly the prospective examinee — as it is 

 pleasing to the past-master of botanical science. 



The second part deals with concrete examples, being a very 

 general account, comprised within a hundred pages, of " Les Plantes 

 superieures," from Bryophyta upwards. The third part, which occu- 

 pies the remaining 45 pages of the text, is devoted to " Quelques 

 Hypotheses." The brevit}^ of this part inspires a warm regret that 

 the author was not spared to develop and display, for the benefit of 

 prosj)erity, some of his favourite notions, such as those upon symbiosis 

 in relation to evolution, the natural history of orchids, heteroblastic 

 development, and so forth. 



L' Eroliition des Plantes is as readable as it is cheap at its price 

 of barely four shillings ; its least original attribute is its title. 



H. F. WERIfHAM. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on June 20, Sir N. 

 Yermoloff gave an exhibition of lantern-slides representing a series of 

 intermediate forms of the Diatom genera Navicula and CymheUa. 

 Tlie sHdes showed a series of closely connected forms, so gradually 

 and continuously passing into one another that it would seem ])ossil)le 

 to grou]) them into one synthetic genealogical evolutionary line of 



